Formula Rodrrico

Saturday, May 17, 2014

NOTES:Alesia GP Course is a fictional circuit I made that is loosely based on the Alès en Cévennes Speed Circuit. It is meant to replace my original track Ales GP Course 1.10. However this is a fresh location directory so you can keep the old version if you like as well as this version.

I generally make fictional circuits (or heavily modified real world circuits) these days as my early 'historical' circuits were heavily critisized for their inaccuracies and usually over fidilly little things. Ales GP Course is a hybrid between a real world course and a fictional course. The basic track map is the same, however I added a chicane half way along the back straight after the kink to slow down the cars a bit and make it more challenging.

To my knowledge the real Ales is relatively flat. I made this version with a steep first corner climb and added my own chicane. There were many layouts to the real Ales, and I have only outlined the short course at turn 2 (not for use though). I don't plan on updating or modifying this track further unless someone would like me to.

The circuit is 4.003km and consists of long curved corners that can be taken in 3rd and 4th gears (F1-1991 historical). As well as 3 long straights with only minor kinks and chicanes that barely slow down the vehicles.Ales GP a high speed circuit.

I recommend F1 mods, as I played with some and enjoyed them all. However my favourites are :F1-1991, 1988, 1993 & 1979.

CHANGELOG1.0 - Inital release.

1.10 - Updated minor things such as textures meshing together, some shadow details and most importantly, the pit lane now enables cars to cross the finish line each lap.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

I decided some time ago to rework my Darlington Park circuit into a longer circuit. The 1992 layout is 4.449km and now I have extended the length to 4.863km. While the length is only 414 metres longer than the original, it now has two high speed straights. Have a race around the new layout which can be downloaded from NoGripRacing HERE. I have included my original 1992 layout so you can compare. Let me know which version you prefer and upload a video of yourself driving around!

From the Readme:

Darlington Park 1995

NOTES:
Darlington Park 1995 is an updated layout of my 1992 Darlington Park circuit. This new layout has extended the total length by 414metres from 4.449km to 4.863km.
The new layout utilities more of the land available to the circuit by adding two high speed straights.
The first of these two new straights follows the old 1970s layout, (which you might have seen while racing around the 1992 layout), before turning right to form the next new long straight.
The pit area has been moved to the northerly part of the circuit along the flat between the original start / finish turn and the final turn. The old start / finish turn is now a clear turn 1.
Ultimately, the old circuit was 4.449km and high speed with a total of 12 turns. Now the 1995 layout is 4.863km yet still has 12 turns.
However arguably two of the turns have double apexes making the unofficial total 14 turns. Be sure to try both layouts (which are included in this package) and tell me which is your favourite.
Includes two versions :

Darlington Park 1992 v1.01
and
Darlington Park 1995 v1.00

_________________________________________________________________________________
KNOWN ISSUES:
- AI. Some mods, notably the 1994 F1 mod, the AI run into the sand traps very easily, while other mods such as CTDP 2005 AI don't suffer this problem. I can't fix this for all mods.
_________________________________________________________________________________
LIST OF CHANGES:
Darlington Park 1992 v1.01
- Minor graphical changes
- Minor AI tweaks
- Minor camera tweaks

Darlington Park 1995 v1.00
- Initial release.

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DONATE:
If you enjoy racing on my tracks, please consider making any small donation to my paypal on my blog. It often takes me a long time to make these circuits for the community and I really appreciate all donations.
http://formularodrrico.blogspot.com/
Thank you.

INSTALL:
Remove all instances of the old Darlington Park (V1.00) from your Rfactor/Locations directory. Then copy over the Darlington Park folder from this zip.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

In this update to Attia Stadt GP, I have fixed the significant bug to the pit exit and make a few small tweaks here and there.

There is not much to say about this update as the issue was identical to the issue found in Manhattan GP. The tirewall model is flawed. I now set all these tirewalls to not include a collision model, which seems to fix the issue where cars 'ghost' into the abyss of the track. I have however been unable to resolve the issue with the AI cars cutting corners and cutting through walls. This issue is caused by the AIW drive-line of which I am not a master of construction. If anyone is willing to help fix this issue without compromising the AI's speed and competitiveness around the track, please contact me.

There are some other minor tweaks throughout the circuit, but they hardly warrant an analysis here. Please check the Readme file for how to install and to see a complete changelog.

As always, my tracks which include Attia Stadt GP 1.10 can be downloaded directly from NoGripRacing HERE.

Friday, May 17, 2013

I released a major overhaul to my original Lower Manhattan GP (now known as Manhattan GP 1990) about two weeks ago. However it would seem that I did not check it thoroughly enough before releasing the V1.50. Within a day or so, a user found two bugs that can be crippling to the track. The first was what appeared to be a hole in the track surface and then a similar bug was found further around the track. It took me another week to determine exactly what the bugs were. As I stated, it seemed like a hole in the track surface. However after trial and error, I fond that it was a model surface that was invisible.

The tire wall at turn one was interfering with the track geometry, thus giving an illusion of a hole in the surface. The only way to rectify this issue has been to not only move the tire wall (and the concrete wall the tires rest against) but to remove all instances of it being a solid object. Therefore the tire wall at turn one is now purely cosmetic. I had to remove the ability for the tires to receive shadows as well as cast them, then convert the object into a 'ghost' meaning it has no solid properties. The actual concrete wall behind the tire wall is still however solid.

It would turn out that the second bug was exactly the same, but at a different corner (turn five). I have performed a similar fix which means that the circuit now has two 'ghost' tire walls around the track. All other tire walls should be solid. The other issue I had with the v1.50 was the AIW. I had made them very fast and very competitive (well I found they were with my skill level at 98%). However I have observed them cutting many corners and riding hard over the kerbs. I have amended the AI racing line just enough to reduce the frequency of the AI cutting the track by up to 70%. However if I make any more changes the AI will not be competitive. Already I have made such a change to the AIW that the AI now runs the track at around 2.5seconds slower (on average) than the previous version (v1.50).

A complete list of changes can be found in the readme file which are always included with my tracks. As always you can download the track HERE at NoGripRacing. I am not in a rush to release it to RFC just yet, so I recommend going to NoGripRacing to get the update.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

After a long time and many unavoidable delays, I am releasing my remake to my Lower Manhattan GP.

Now titled a far more simple Manhattan GP, this version (v1.50) is essentially a remake of LMGP which I released over two years ago. Manhattan GP retains the LMGP layout, however almost everything is new to do with the track. The only retained elements are mostly objects and some textures from LMGP. However for those with a keen eye for detail, you will see that I have changed everything and for the better.Over the last two years, my skills in rFactor circuit design have developed to the point that I feel my older tracks are dated and need revamping. I started with Phoenix Proposal 1989, updating it to v2.55 and moved on to my much loved LMGP. I renamed the circuit to Manhattan GP for simplicity as it is clearly lower Manhattan, so why not simply call it Manhattan. Please read the readme file that is included in the .ZIP file as I have detailed what changes I have made to LMGP to bring it up to a v1.50.Sadly I will not now improve my other Manhattan circuit, Lower Manhattan INDY as the files that originally created it are long gone with a failed hard drive. So that circuit will unlikely see a relaunch.As always, Manhattan GP and all my other publicly released tracks can be found at NoGripRacing HERE. I may release it to Rfactor Central in the coming days but no promises.If you enjoy racing on my tracks, then please consider donating to my PayPal, which can be found on the sidebar to my blog. Every little bit helps and helps keep me motivated to continue my efforts for the sim racing community. Thank you and enjoy Manhattan GP.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

This is completely random and spontaneous, but perhaps you might like some music I have been writing. Follow THIS LINK to my soundcloud page and have a listen.

I am currently looking for like minded people to write / score music. If you are interested then by all means, contact me.

In other news, I am almost finished my update to Lower Manhattan GP which will bring the track up to v1.2. There are many changes both major and minor. Some of the changes are listed below :

- New / modified walls

- Modified buildings

- Heavily modified track surface

- New cameras

- updated AIW

I will release this the coming week to NoGripRacing and the later to Rfactorcentral. Sadly however, I will not be releasing an update to Lower Manhattan INDY as the raw files have been lost on an old hard-drive. In order for me to make any sort of update, I would have to start from scratch. This is frankly, not worth it right now. But the Lower Manhattan GP will be ready with the update soon, so check back here in the coming days for a download link.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

It had been my aim for some time now to build a Grand Prix circuit that was set in a European city. Finally after acquiring the skills needed to do the job reasonable justice I have made the circuit come to life.

Attia Stadt GP is an entirely fictional circuit set near the borders of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Consisting of 17 turns, Attia Stadt Grand Prix is a clockwise circuit of medium and high speed. With four long bursts of power, you will race at significant speed through the city, and surrounding mountainous terrain. Many of the corners are unforgiving and will catch out dozens of drivers who dare to push their cars beyond their limitations. Attia Stadt is the sort of track that rewards those who grit their teeth tight over a lap of pleasure or pain. Those who can master the corners will certainly start the Attia GP on the front row. However for those who push even the slightest beyond their abilities will be punished with a ruined car.

If you enjoy racing my circuits, please consider donating just a little to my PayPal. it often takes me a great deal of time and effort to make these tracks for free for the community. Thank you for your consideration and be sure to enjoy Attia Stadt Grand Prix.

Monday, February 11, 2013

After undergoing surgery to remove a rather displeasing lump from the throat I have finally got back into making circuits. I had a good amount of time to think about why I bother uploading tracks to the community when I get very little in return. Ultimately the positive comments generally far outweigh the negative comments, and now I simply need to ignore pathetic criticisms in the future.My tracks will continue to have my own personal 'fictional' advertising and imagination to them. I would only use more realistic advertising if I was working on a track that I was aiming to be oh a high calibre of accuracy to the real world counterpart. However I rarely make these sorts of tracks these days to avoid unwanted mockery of my skills.Now to talk about the updates to Reims Revival 2012 v1.10!I listened to the community and by far the biggest issue with Reims was the hole that I had overlooked upon its initial release a few weeks ago. This hole is now completely gone! I also removed the wonderful background image and replaced it with something dull in the form of the default background. I did this as it more closely resembles the region in France which does not have fantastic mountains. Finally the only other significant update is a modification to the bumps / terrain on track.Initially I had intentionally gone for an aggressive bump profile around the track to emulate the real world layout which was not in the best condition in parts. However I have toned this back a peg or two to improve the AI's performance in terms of lap times around the circuit. Yet, I have not reduced the bumps to the extent that one or two individuals would have liked. If you find that the bumps are too rough then please consider these setting changes that I run :- G27 Wheel (set to 280 degrees rotation, Full wheel ffb) + 86%

- Real Feel Plugin (latest version)- Depending on the mod, either Real Feel settings or Strong / Medium FFB options- TC OFF (or low)- Stability Control OFF- All other driver aids off.I find it easy to drive around the circuit with these settings, if you find it hard with the bumps then be sure to keep practising and sooner or later you will get better at driving.

A complete list of the track version history can be seen below:_________________________________________________________________________________CHANGE LOG :1.00 - Initial release1.10 - Replaced skybox with 'default skybox' (to be more accurate of the dull landscape) - modified the bump profile - fixed bug / hole in the track - other minor tweaks_________________________________________________________________________________KNOWN ISSUES:- Some F1 cars (particularly modern F1 cars) flip on the kerbs. This was not built for modern F1 cars.- RECOMMENDED to run the track with Circuit Display settings set to FULL, otherwise some tree models will have an error._________________________________________________________________________________As always, my tracks are best downloaded from NoGripRacing and you can get the latest version of Reims Revivial 2012 v1.10 HERE or simply search for it at Rfactorcentral.com

COMING SOON:Attia Stadt Grand Prix, a fictional city / town Grand Prix set in the German / Austrian landscape.Enjoy!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Fictional History :Reims was a formidable circuit in its time which originally spanned 46 years. It was shortened for 1952 and would operate as a high speed circuit until 1972 when it finally was decommissioned as a circuit for the final time.Forty years have passed and finally it was agreed that a revival circuit would be set up for competition classic car and classic Grand Prix racing. It opened for its first race in 2012 which was to be a classic Grand Prix meeting.The circuit had been upgraded from the days before safety was more than an idea to make it a class three racing venue (Formula One being a class one event). This enabled the circuit to obtain a classic car racing status for 2012.The very first event was a classic Formula One meeting consisting of F1 cars from the 1950s and 1960s. Other supporting races including Historic Touring Car and DRM were also held on the weekend of July alongside the main event.The circuit was highly successful and it was renewed for a further 4 years of operation to run from 2013 - 2016. However the final turn (turn 10) it to be modified into a chicane for safety reasons.NOTES:Consisting of 10 turns, Reims Revival 2012 is a clockwise circuit of extremely high speed. It is not the original circuit but a shorter version to bring it up into the twenty-first century. Many of the new turns were designed to avoid the now prominent roundabouts where the original circuit once stood. However much of the circuit runs on the same stretches of road that existed back during its original configuration (1953-72 layout).I am very happy with the track-side cameras. This is the first circuit where the cameras do not overlap or have other issues. Included is a two lap camera file.As always, my track has been uploaded to NoGripRacing and can be downloaded HERE. It should also be available from Rfactorcentral in the coming days.If you enjoy playing my tracks, then please consider donating anything to my paypal. Thank you!

Friday, January 25, 2013

After much thought, I finally released Donington Park 1937 to Rfactorcentral as well as Phoenix Proposal 1989 v2.5.Originally I was not going to release either tracks to Rfactorcentral for a number of reasons. The most prominent reason is the lack of merit to much of the 'feedback' I get from the community. By all means, let me know if something is broken, but don't be too picky with the most insignificant details. For example, the ratings I often get on Rfactorcentral are perplexing. Why would I receive a 2 out of 5 for 'Ok track naming' for Imola 1960s? The name either clashes with others in the menu of the game, or the folder has the same name, or it does not. In this case, it never did. As far as I could tell, I was the only person who has bothered to tackle the old Imola in this way (until recent times, where Carrera 1988 made the 1988 layout to Imola).You see, things like that bug me. Well, that sort of thing, and blanket low scoring. Arguably the hardest circuits I have made were my renditions of New York in the early 1990s, those being Lower Manhattan GP and Lower Manhattan INDY. I released them to Rfactorcentral and the first few ratings I got suggested that the circuits were only a 2.5/5. While I know I am not the best circuit designer / modeller out there, I did believe they were looking at least a 3.5/5. It was a 'hmm' moment. It put me off from adding other tracks to Rfactorcentral for some time. I found that the community at Nogripracing was far more respectful for what is ultimately free content that we modders slave away at for their and our own entertainment.Since those releases now over two years ago, the ratings of both Lower Manhattan GP and the INDY course have improved dramatically to 4.5/5 each. Which is better than I could have hoped for. In fact, my latest releases to Rfactorcentral (Donington and the latest version of Phoenix) have scored very well so far, and to top it off, Donington has (so far) received some great generally positive feedback which is something that can easily restore faith in humanity - at least for the time being!Now that I have all that rambling out of my system for the next five minutes, I might let you all know about my latest project which I effectively finished two months ago, yet have not released it anywhere. That project is Reims Revival.

This is the original 1953-67' layout

This is shortened layout for the 2012 revival

Here it is in an editing program

As you can see from the screenshots, the Reims Revival 2012 circuit is much shorter than the 1953 original layout. The 1953 layout was 8.372km. While my shorter 'revival' circuit will be just 6.765km in length.

Gone are the two hairpins from turns 5 and 7. The first corner has been modified as the original layout is now a roundabout. Instead, I have dug into the farm land to convert the original turn 1 into three separate corners. From there the circuit follows that of the 1953 layout until we get up to the section where the track originally led up to the first hairpin. The satellite image suggests that even though the circuit is overgrown and lost that the stencil remains. I decided to cut it out entirely and turn the circuit towards the highway in the exact spot where the old road fades away into the paddock. This section becomes turn 5 to 7.

From there the circuit has its fastest section on the highway up and over the hill which follows the original 1953 layout exactly. However I have again shortened this section which once led to a hairpin to around half the length. Instead, as the circuit passes the second wooded paddock, it turns right and then immediately left off the hill in a fast sweeping fluid move to a purpose built road that I have added to bring the circuit back to the main straight. As you can see the long straight on the final part of the circuit will be a challenge for novice drivers. There is a wall immediately at the end with zero run-off area. Obviously this would not happen in real life in now days, but I thought it was a fitting challenge.

In total the circuit went from a total of 7 turns into 10 turns. The circuit is most definitely still a power circuit with, what I believe, to have the essence of Reims still intact. The main reason I have made the changes from the original course is the road has changed in real life to roundabouts or towns or disappeared entirely.

I will be keen to know what you all think of my remake of Reims for the 21st century.

I am planning to release this track in the coming days to both Nogripracing and Rfactorcentral, so be sure to look out for it!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Donington Park was once a premier venue for Grand Prix racing during the 1930s. Over that period, the circuit underwent various changes to the layout. By 1937 the circuit was up to a 5.029km length which is what I have tried to recreate for Rfactor.

I have tried my best to bring the era of the 1930s Grand Prix racing to life for Rfactor with what I had available to me. However I have had to make a few compromises during the design process so that cars would actually be able to drive on the track. The real Donington of 1937 had some seriously rough bumps. In fact the approach to the hairpin was so steep that the cars took off and landed quite abrasively just before the braking zone. This was also the case on the run to the start / finish line. For Rfactor, I had to reduce the angle of these bumps as the AI would hit the bumps at almost full speed and the crash practically every time, thus I was one of very few cars to actually complete a lap during testing.

I then modified the bumps ever so slightly to reduce this change of annihilation of the AI cars, though now they brought their speeds right down to a crawl just before the bumps and thus, the following cars would crash into these near static objects in the middle of the road.Ultimately, what I have done is modify the historical circuit just to a point that the AI can negotiate the circuit without a 100% chance of incident and be competitive. No doubt the purists out there will say this is no good as a result, but I believe it is a worthy compromise.

This is the first track in over two years that I have made multiple layouts for. The GP Course is that of 1937 as it was. While the Special Reverse is one that I found to be just as functional and fun during testing, so I decided to include it. I don't however believe that it was ever used in a reverse configuration during that period.

If you have the new old version v2.0 or v1.0, be sure to delete all the files and corresponding folders from your Rfactor/gamedata/locations directory before copying in the new v2.5 version to avoid any errors or hassles. Enjoy!

Friday, October 12, 2012

Phoenix 1989 Proposal v2.50. I have been meaning to change many of my street circuits from their initial releases now that I have learnt such a wealth about Rfactor track design. Phoenix 1989 is the first of what is sure to be many major updates to my existing tracks.

Most of my city tracks have very unrefined corners that are 90 degrees or more acute angles which look very rough. I have learnt much about how to improve surface materials for Rfactor that I feel it is time to go back and polish up many of my tracks to make them what I had envisaged they could have been but lacked the required skill set.

Phoenix 1989 is a good starting point for this process of cleaning up messy parts of my tracks. Now the circuit feels more real, more visceral, even though it is hardly a real world location!

I am now just in the process of some final adjustments to the circuit, but I am looking forward to a release on NoGripRacing in the coming days. In the meantime, here is a changelog of Phoenix 89' :